Written Answers Monday 12 July 2010

Scottish Executive

Cancer

Claire Baker (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive how many people have waited longer than one month for their results after seeing a cancer specialist in each NHS board in each year since 2007.

Nicola Sturgeon: The information requested is not held centrally. The Scottish Government has a target of 62 days from referral to treatment for those patients who have symptoms related to a cancer. This necessitates quick access to a cancer specialist, diagnostic tests and results in order to meet the target.

Carers

Johann Lamont (Glasgow Pollok) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what steps it is taking to ensure that the needs of all carers are assessed.

Nicola Sturgeon: The legislation does not require the needs of all carers to be assessed. The Social Work (Scotland) Act 1968 , as amended by the Community Care and Health (Scotland) Act 2002 ("the 2002 Act") , gives substantial and regular carers the right to request an assessment of their ability to provide care. The Children (Scotland) Act 1995 , as amended by the 2002 Act, gives substantial and regular carers of a child with disabilities the right to request an assessment of their ability to care. The legislation also requires local authorities to inform carers of their potential right to a carer’s assessment.We are working with partners so that they better understand the importance of the carer’s assessment and that they take forward proposals to increase uptake of good quality outcome-focussed assessments. Some ideas being taken forward by local authorities include the introduction of carers’ self-assessment and the development of e-learning carer awareness modules for staff. The Carers Strategy for Scotland , to be published shortly, will include action points to encourage the uptake of good quality assessments and will highlight good practice in the carrying out of carers’ assessments.

Dentists

Mike Rumbles (West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive how many NHS dentists there were per head of population, broken down by (a) NHS board and (b) local authority area in each of the last three years for which figures are available.

Shona Robison: Information showing the number of NHS dentists (headcount) who provided NHS general dental services per head of population by NHS board for the years 2008 to 2010 are presented in the table.Published data for NHS General Dental Service Dentists by local authority area can be found at http://www.isdscotland.org/isd/5898.html .NHS General Dental Service Dentists per Head of Population by NHS Board

  


NHS Board Area
Headcount1
Population, estimated
NHS GDS dentists


Data at 31st March
Data at 30th June
Per 100,000 population


2008
20092010
20072008
2009
2008
2009
2010


Ayrshire and Arran
179
189199
367,020367,510
367,160
48.8
51.4
54.2


Borders
52
5563
111,430112,430
112,680
46.7
48.9
55.9


Dumfries and Galloway
70
7172
148,300148,580
148,510
47.2
47.8
48.5


Fife
178
198209
360,428361,815
363,385
49.4
54.7
57.5


Forth Valley
133
154171
288,473290,047
291,383
46.1
53.1
58.7


Grampian
232
252266
535,290539,630
544,980
43.3
46.7
48.8


Greater Glasgow and Clyde
685
715717
1,192,4191,194,675
1,199,026
57.4
59.8
59.8


Highland
177
184195
308,790309,900
310,530
57.3
59.4
62.8


Lanarkshire
257
269291
560,042561,174
562,215
45.9
47.9
51.8


Lothian
445
471480
809,764817,727
826,231
55.0
57.6
58.1


Orkney
12
1715
19,86019,890
19,960
60.4
85.5
75.2


Shetland
18
2528
21,95021,980
22,210
82.0
113.7
126.1


Tayside
224
245250
394,134396,942
399,550
56.8
61.7
62.6


Western Isles
15
1817
26,30026,200
26,180
57.0
68.7
64.9


Scotland
2,576
2,7392,847
5,144,2005,168,500
5,194,000
50.1
53.0
54.8




  Sources: Information Services Division, National Services Scotland.General Register Office for Scotland.Note. 1 A dentist is counted once for each NHS board where he/she has an arrangement to provide general dental services. As a result the sum of the number of dentists in each NHS board area will exceed the number of dentists in Scotland (where a dentist is only counted once).

Education

Margaret Smith (Edinburgh West) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive how many local authorities will have schools offering the language baccalaureate in the academic year 2010-11.

Michael Russell: This data will not be available until January 2011 when centres submit their finalised entries to the Scottish Qualifications Authority.

Education

Margaret Smith (Edinburgh West) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive how many local authorities will have schools offering the science baccalaureate in the academic year 2010-11.

Michael Russell: This data will not be available until January 2011 when centres submit their finalised entries to the Scottish Qualifications Authority.

Education

Margaret Smith (Edinburgh West) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive how many pupils were presented for the language baccalaureate in the academic year 2009-10.

Michael Russell: 19 pupils were presented for the Scottish Languages Baccalaureate in the academic year 2009-10.

Education

Margaret Smith (Edinburgh West) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive how many pupils were presented for the science baccalaureate in the academic year 2009-10.

Michael Russell: 119 pupils were presented for the Scottish Science Baccalaureate in the academic year 2009-10.

Education

Margaret Smith (Edinburgh West) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive when it will publish its report on the 2008 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) Advanced results.

Michael Russell: There was no 2008 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study. The study takes place every four years. The report for the 2007 study was published on 9 December 2008 and is available on the government website using the following link. http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2009/10/13150724/0 .

Health

Mary Scanlon (Highlands and Islands) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive what research and data is used to assess the successful outcomes of child healthy weight interventions as outlined in the HEAT target.

Shona Robison: The Scottish Government have agreed child healthy weight targets with NHS boards. Individual boards have responsibility for making decisions on research and data collection locally.NHS Health Scotland is exploring the feasibility of using locally collected data as part of the national evaluation of HEAT 3 which is currently underway.

Hospital-Acquired Infection

Jackie Baillie (Dumbarton) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will collect and publish statistics on the number of hospital-acquired E. coli deaths.

Nicola Sturgeon: The medical certificate of the cause of death, which is the information source for General Register Office for Scotland (GROS) statistics, describes the diseases or conditions leading or contributing to death. It does not detail whether the disease or condition was hospital acquired. On that basis, GROS has confirmed it cannot distinguish between deaths from hospital acquired E. coli and deaths from E. coli that was acquired elsewhere, in order to collect and publish such statistics.

Hospital-Acquired Infection

Jackie Baillie (Dumbarton) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it considers that E. coli affects more patients than (a) MRSA and (b) Clostridium difficile.

Nicola Sturgeon: The Health Protection Scotland (HPS) NHSScotland National HAI Prevalence Survey, dated July 2007, confirmed that E. coli accounted for 6.7% of infections and was predominantly associated with urinary tract infections. This same report also confirmed that both Clostridium difficile and MRSA accounted for more than 17% of infections.

Hospital-Acquired Infection

Jackie Baillie (Dumbarton) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive how many people contracted hospital-acquired E. coli in (a) 2007-08, (b) 2008-09 and (c) 2009-10.

Nicola Sturgeon: Health Protection Scotland (HPS) has confirmed that until a better understanding can be established of what proportion of E. coli bacteraemias are healthcare associated, their epidemiology and what measures are available to prevent them, it would be difficult to separate out any healthcare associated subset from total case numbers.

  HPS is currently reviewing possible options for surveillance but advise that in the interim E. coli bacteraemias will continue to be reported as part of annual antimicrobial resistance surveillance reporting arrangements. The first report, published in January 2010, is available through the HPS website using the following url:http://www.hps.scot.nhs.uk/haiic/amr/publicationsdetail.aspx?id=43744.

Hospital-Acquired Infection

Jackie Baillie (Dumbarton) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will follow the lead of the UK Department of Health and publish weekly data on MRSA and Clostridium difficile on a hospital by hospital basis.

Nicola Sturgeon: I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-34752 on 5 July 2010. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at www.scottish.parliament.uk/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx .

Hospitals

Nanette Milne (North East Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive what information it has regarding plans to open a Ministry of Defence Hospital Unit in Scotland.

Nicola Sturgeon: The opening of Ministry of Defence Hospital Units (MDHU) in Scotland is a decision for the Ministry of Defence. However the Scottish Government would be happy to assist in the work of that UK Department on future requirements as required.

Hospitals

Nanette Milne (North East Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive what representations it has made to the Ministry of Defence regarding the opening of a Ministry of Defence Hospital Unit in Scotland.

Nicola Sturgeon: Scottish Ministers have made no representations to the MoD regarding the location of Ministry of Defence Hospital Units (MDHUs).

NHS Boards

Ross Finnie (West of Scotland) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will place in the Scottish ParIiament Information Centre (SPICe) a progress report on the non-statutory pilots underway alongside the NHS board election pilots.

Nicola Sturgeon: The Health Board (Membership and Elections) Scotland Act 2009 stipulates that an independent evaluation, be carried out into the Pilot Health Board Elections. The London School of Economics in association with the University of St Andrews has been appointed to undertake this task, and this will also look at the effects of the non-statutory pilots which are underway. The Scottish Government expects the findings of this Independent Evaluation to be laid before Parliament in the autumn of 2012.I wrote to you in March 2009 prior to Stage 3 of the Act to outline the approach that I intend to take in delivering non statutory alternative pilots. This involved a mix of the following approaches across NHS Grampian and NHS Lothian:strengthening the role of Public Partnership Forums by appointing at least one of their members to the local health board;reducing the number of Executive members on a Board to 5 and increasing the number of non executive members. This will give a clear majority to non executive and councillor members;enhancing the public appointments process in the pilot area to increase the diversity around the board table.I can confirm that a member of Midlothian Public Partnership Forum has been appointed to the NHS Lothian Board after a selection process overseen by the Office of the Commissioner for Public Appointments. You will also wish to note that the number of Executive Directors in both non-statutory pilot areas has been reduced to 5 which is consistent with the reductions in both Pilot Elected Health Boards. An enhanced public appointment process to appoint 2 additional members in NHS Grampian is currently underway which is aimed at increasing diversity around the board table. A further appointment will also be made to the NHS Lothian Board in due course using the alternative proposals.

NHS Staff

Dr Richard Simpson (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will require the NHS Scotland Central Legal Office to record whether doctors involved in incidents are locums.

Nicola Sturgeon: The NHSScotland Central Legal Office has the facility to record in its clinical negligence claims database the locum status of any clinician who has been identified as having contributed to a negligent act or omission which has resulted in a compensation being made by an NHS board to a patient or relative. Discussions will be held with the relevant stakeholders to take this forward.

NHS Staff

Dr Richard Simpson (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what steps it is taking to ensure that the integrity of NHS IT systems is maintained by ensuring that each locum doctor uses an individual password.

Nicola Sturgeon: The integrity of Board IT systems is the responsibility of individual NHS Boards. This includes, but is not limited to, ensuring that appropriate access management is in place. The NHSScotland Information Security Policy contains guidance on user password management and makes clear that staff members must be assigned individual passwords. This requirement applies to all doctors, including locums.

NHS Staff

Dr Richard Simpson (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive for what reason some NHS boards did not follow the advice issued in 2006 to employ locums through the contract agencies only.

Nicola Sturgeon: This information is not held centrally.

NHS Staff

Dr Richard Simpson (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive for what reason the number of locum agency requests increased from 3,700 in 2006-07 to 8,200 in 2008-09 in seven NHS boards, as noted in the Audit Scotland report, Using locum doctors in hospitals.

Nicola Sturgeon: There is no clear evidence to explain why the number of locum agency requests increased. However, we are leading work with key stakeholders to develop a package of measures designed to reduce demand for temporary medical staff and, where their use is unavoidable, ensure they are both high quality and affordable.

NHS Staff

Dr Richard Simpson (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what steps it is taking to ensure that NHS boards maintain data on locum doctor employment; that they do so using the most effective electronic data set already in use and that where locums are employed, junior doctors do not endanger patient safety by contracting on a regular or frequent basis beyond the 48 hours stipulated in the European working time directive.

Nicola Sturgeon: The Scottish Government is leading work with key stakeholders to develop a package of measures designed to reduce demand for temporary medical staff and, where their use is unavoidable, ensure they are both high quality and affordable. These measures are currently under consultation with NHSScotland Chief Executives and are due to be published later this year. In NHSScotland, over 98% of doctors in training are compliant with the Working Time Regulations (WTR). Boards continue to work towards achieving full compliance.

NHS Staff

Ken Macintosh (Eastwood) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive whether an assessment has been made of the impact that proposed NHS job losses will have on health services in East Renfrewshire.

Nicola Sturgeon: No, because NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde have no planned workforce reductions in East Renfrewshire.

NHS Staff

Ken Macintosh (Eastwood) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive how many of the proposed NHS job losses are in East Renfrewshire.

Nicola Sturgeon: NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde have confirmed that they have no planned workforce reductions in East Renfrewshire.

NHS Staff

Ken Macintosh (Eastwood) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive how many nursing and midwifery posts in East Renfrewshire will be lost as a result of the proposed NHS job losses.

Nicola Sturgeon: I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-34771 on 12 July 2010. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at: www.scottish.parliament.uk/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx .

NHS Staff

Ken Macintosh (Eastwood) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive how many (a) physiotherapist, (b) speech and language therapist and (c) other posts in professions allied to medicine and based in East Renfrewshire will be lost as a result of the proposed NHS job losses.

Nicola Sturgeon: I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-34771 on 12 July 2010. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at: www.scottish.parliament.uk/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx .

National Health Service

Jackie Baillie (Dumbarton) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what the remit is of the national scrutiny group announced on 3 June 2010.

Nicola Sturgeon: As I said on 3 June, the detailed remit and operation of the scrutiny group will be finalised in consultation with the stakeholders involved. Members of the group have been asked to submit their views on membership, remit and operation of the group. The first meeting of the group will take place on 4 August 2010.

National Health Service

Jackie Baillie (Dumbarton) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive who is represented on the national scrutiny group announced on 3 June 2010.

Nicola Sturgeon: As I said on 3 June, the detailed remit and operation of the scrutiny group will be finalised in consultation with the stakeholders involved. Members of the group have been asked to submit their views on membership, remit and operation of the group. The first meeting of the group will take place on 4 August 2010.

National Health Service

Jackie Baillie (Dumbarton) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive when the national scrutiny group announced on 3 June 2010 first met.

Nicola Sturgeon: As I said on 3 June, the detailed remit and operation of the scrutiny group will be finalised in consultation with the stakeholders involved. Members of the group have been asked to submit their views on membership, remit and operation of the group. The first meeting of the group will take place on 4 August 2010.

National Health Service

Helen Eadie (Dunfermline East) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what guidance it has issued to (a) local authorities and (b) NHS boards regarding the use of non-geographic telephone numbers as their main point of contact.

Nicola Sturgeon: We have not issued guidance to local authorities or NHS boards on the use of non-geographic telephone numbers. We understand, however, that the industry regulator, Ofcom, is currently carrying out a review of all non-geographic call services and they will be considering the use of such numbers by our public bodies and the impact this has on consumers.

Students

Margaret Smith (Edinburgh West) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive when it will publish its report on the 2009 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) results.

Michael Russell: The report will be published on Tuesday 7 December 2010, to coincide with the publication by the OECD of the international report.